Skimming

THE WORD returns from a brief seasonal binge with hope in his heart and a song on his lips. 2019 has got to be an improvement on 2018. Doesn’t it?

“[M]any college students actively avoid the classic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries because they no longer have the patience to read longer, denser, more difficult texts. 

“We should be less concerned with students’ ‘cognitive impatience,’ however, than by what may underlie it: the potential inability of large numbers of students to read with a level of critical analysis sufficient to comprehend the complexity of thought and argument found in more demanding texts, whether in literature and science in college, or in wills, contracts and the deliberately confusing public referendum questions citizens encounter in the voting booth.” 

—Maryann Wolf, Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice, UCLA, “Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound,” The Guardian, August 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Yikes. Sentences like that cry out for skimming, professor.

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard